Apple loses bid to 'cut in line' in Samsung patent dust-up

A US Federal appeals court has rejected Apple's request to expedite its appeal requesting a ban on a passel of its über-enemy Samsung's smartphones from the US market.

"In some sense, Apple was asking to 'cut in line'," Santa Clara University law professor Brian Love told Reuters, "and judges are generally reluctant to give certain cases special treatment."

Apple had asked the court to allow it to present its appeal to the full appeals court immediately, but was rebuffed in a ruling on Monday by the Federal US Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, DC.

Instead, Cupertino's legal team will have to first present its case to a three-judge panel, and the full appeals court won't even decide whether it will hear the case at all until that panel issues its ruling.

Monday's decision comes after a week during which Apple failed in two other attempts to put the boot to its Korean consumer-electronics rival. Last Wednesday, a Federal Court in San Francisco turned down Cupertino's request that its $1.05bn judgment against Samsung be tripled due to "willful" infringement of iPhone patents, and last Friday its appeal to reinstate an injunction against US sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus was turned down by the same court that issued this Monday's ruling.

As Apple's appeal to reinstate the injunction against a gaggle of Samsung's smartphones now slowly wends its way through the US Federal Court system, those phones will undoubtedly be replaced by newer models, and Apple's legal team will have to petition the court to add those new handsets to its case.

Patent turf wars – ain't they a hoot? ®